Month: February 2018

It’s been a while since I’ve recommended a video, but this one seems like the right one to share. Christine from IvyWInter interviews Isaac from Wotso Videos in the Disney Unpopular Opinions series, talking about how Isaac really liked Stitch’s Great Escape. For a controversial ride that has a limited future, it is interesting to see that someone enjoys it. As I mentioned in the comments, I really enjoyed the ride as a kid. As I grew up, there was a more crítical point of view.

As a Disney fan, you’ve probably watched The Incredibles 2 trailer. If not, here it is for you to enjoy:

As I was watching the trailer, I couldn’t stop think about how bigger the world of the family looks. Every single character had slightly different design, much more detailed compared to the first movie. This isn’t a surprise, as the rendering technology from Pixar has evolved immensely. It is instantly noticeable between the films of Toy Story or even comparing Finding Nemo to Finding Dory.

The second aspect that I noticed is that the superpowers shown in the trailer from Jack Jack are out of this world. With an intense super hero driven box office these days, you need strong powers that are delightful to new audiences. At the same time, it was shown very little fighting or even small hints about a final battle. Yes, there are scenes in the beginning of the film, but it is thrown as an example rather than the big climax of the film. The sequel seems to be much more centered about the struggles the family keeps having to balance between saving lives and having a normal life.

Even though I’ve been worried about the sequels at Pixar, The Incredibles is the one film I always wanted a second story to be developed. A decade later, here it is, and it is ready to surprise us on June 15.

While the D23 Expo at California is considered the main event for many fans, this year’s Japan convention turned the attention of many enthusiasts. Usually, the announcements in this convention aren’t as big as the Anaheim version, but Bob Chapek just gave new details on upcoming attractions and totally new attractions.

As The Price Increases, Damage Control Is Necessary

Let’s not forget the news that Disney wants us to forget altogether: the prices for the parks at Orlando and Anaheim just increased, along with the annual passes. Even though it was expected, Disney wants us to slowly throw it under the mat. This is the first time that there has been breaking news right after a price increase, which shows that Disney is aware that their price increases have become sour news, giving actual bad press for a couple of weeks sometimes.

This doesn’t mean that our excitement should wind down. On the other hand, it looks like the announcements will come for a price.

Paris Gets The Marvel Treatment

Many fans expected that Mission Breakout would come to Walt Disney Studios in Paris, but Disney has other plans in mind. They announced that Rock n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith will receive a Marvel reskin, with the use of the Avengers as part of the experience. This may be good news for the Tower Of Terror fans, as they will get an updated roller coaster without the loss of the beloved thrill ride.

There are also announcements that more Marvel experiences will come to the park. Jack from the DSNY Newscast explains in detail how it will affect the Paris park:

Mickey Is Coming Next Year, Guardians In 2021

Mickey’s Runaway Railway is expected to open next year. Bob Chapek showed some new concept art. Beyond that, there was no new information. Disney might be keeping many details under wraps to surprise us with this all-new 2-1/2D attraction. It has been also announced that the new Guardians Of The Galaxy attraction will open in 2021 and it is one of the longest enclosed roller coasters in the world.

New Pixar Pier Signage An An Upcoming Incredibles Float For Paint The Night

With the new announcements of Pixar Pier, they just unveiled a new signage and a float for Paint The Night that features the characters from The Incredibles. Pixar Pier will open in June 23, 2018.

Star Wars Hotel Will Be Connected To Galaxy’s Edge

As expected, it has been announced that the Star Wars themed hotel will be connected to Galaxy’s Edge, confirming that the park could have special hours to the hotel guests as well as connected experiences between the areas.

You can watch a concept art of the hotel here:

Hong Kong Has A New Marvel Attraction On The Horizon

With th success of the Iron Man attraction, Disney already has plans for a second Marvel attraction for Hong Kong featuring Ant Man and the Wasp. The concept art looks like a S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquartes, making also reference to the Marvel series. The attraction will replace Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters.

Over the past decade, we´ve seen the tickets for Disney theme parks rise straight to the $100 mark many purists thought Disney will never do. How dare you, greedy Disney? But as the quarterly results of the company keep telling us, the parks is one of the most steady businesses the company has. People still go through the turnstiles, no matter the pricing. Not only that, but it will probably keep going up.

The rise of the prices took a turn when Bob Chapek started leading the Parks & Resorts division, doing steady price increases every year with the excuse of inflation. When the tiered ticket pricing por high and low season appeared, it was evident that Disney wasn’t raising prices for inflation. In fact, they were pricing for the value the guests keep getting with their vacations.

This is an unobjectionable excuse: the Disney parks are the single best in the world. Period. And even though prices keep increasing. The parks keep filling up. And when you have parks filled the whole year, that doesn’t make a great experience. Instead, Disney decided to keep the prices up to see if they will receive less guests, but those who go through the turnstiles are more willing to open their wallets for food and merchandise. If this was Chapek’s strategy, everybody needs to agree he has done a damn well job at it.

Still, this doesn’t hide the fact that Disney hasn’t made significant strides in the management of the parks to improve the overall experience.

Yes, we are in the middle of another golden age of Imagineering, for a price tag. And that didn’t happen in ye olde days, were one could say Imagineers did some projects as ambitious as the current ones.

As price increases, the value should too. There shouldn’t be budget cuts that make Mickey stop talking during meet n’ greets, carbon copy elements from other parks like the case of Toy Story Land, or even a slight improvement on more quick service restaurants (looking at you, Magic Kingdom).

Even though Disney seems to be fast paced increasing prices and announcing exciting projects, they’re more dinosaur like with small, significant changes that could keep the magic going within the theme parks.

The company has grown in such a way in the past decade that there must be a way to expand this growth in simple things like customer service at the parks. As the Disney brand becomes more recognizable and winning some enemies, they should take more care about their parks, as it is the main front that many people experience. The only way that many audiences can interact with the Disney brand is within the theme parks.

The price tag for a vacation keeps going up because people keep coming. But as people keep coming, Disney needs to be more aware about which experience they want the guest to remember so they keep coming back. Not only that, but that experience will be the way that family will think about the Disney brand as a whole.

Forget about the new trilogy from Rian Johnson. The Game Of Thrones gang is coming to do some interesting work in the force and Star Wars fans can’t be any happier about it. Why? Because with their input, Star Wars will start breathing its own life instead of relying exclusively on nostalgia.

During the quarterly earnings, Bob Iger announced that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will work on an upcoming series of films for the galaxy. According to the story, Kathleen Kennedy was interested in them to make a TV series, as their work from Game Of Thrones has been praised since the very beginning. The producers told her they wanted to do a series of films in a very specific part of the timeline. That, my fellow readers, are happy fans doing the Star Wars films they always wanted to do. And if they achieve their dreams, it will probably also achieve the dreams of millions of Star Wars fans.

The timing for this announcement seems odd, as many people wondered already about Lucasfilm’s next steps after the sequel trilogy and the turmoil that The Last Jedi did for the fans. That coupled with the fact that Rian announced that he’s also planning its own trilogy of Star Wars films and you have enough to bring some negative criticism. Oh, and let’s not forget the desperation of the fans to see a glimpse of the new Han Solo film.

But the fact that Kathleen is bringing the producers of Game Of Thrones shows their commitment to the beloved galaxy. Not only that, but they also announced that Lucasfilm is working on several (yes, more than one) series about Star Wars. Even though Bob Iger said there is no talent attached right now to the projects, they are in the negotiation process to acquire great talent.

Maybe some fans are still worried, maybe some of them don’t even like Game Of Thrones. What they can’t say is that Lucasfilm isn’t doing their best job to develop interesting stories for Star Wars. We might even see some stories from the expanded universe in the new projects, making them canon. Pablo Hidalgo has hinted that the Solo movie will be very similar in tone to the trilogy of books from the EU, which means that these past stories also inform the future projects.

An overall strategy is starting to shape up. Maybe the trilogies are the tent pole, Avengers-style movies that establish the main story points of the galaxy, while the TV series can show side missions of other characters that are also part of the main arc. If this turns out true, then many fans can finally say that Star Wars is in good hands, with enough stories to keep us intrigued about what’s coming next.

Even though I have my criticisms about Kathleen Kennedy, at least she isn’t stopping to do her best on the job. What many producers consider a daunting task, Kathleen is moving swiftly towards an ideal strategy that keeps the fans and the creators happy. In the end, even many of the talent working for Lucasfilm are huge fans of the same films they are working on.

In 2017’s D23, Bob Chapek announced a 2,000 seat theatre located in Main Street U.S.A., in a new area that is backstage. There was no word on which show would be shown on stage, but it sure would be of the same quality as Frozen and Aladdin in Disney’s California Adventure. This theatre that was just announced a few months ago may never see the green light.

There have been many rumors surrounding the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World, with some of them confirmed in D23. The new theatre was a surprise for many, but it was well received as the park needs offerings that could handle the crowds that just get bigger every year in the Magic Kingdom.

This is why the rumor of this project been canceled appears to be odd, as it seems such a great addition to the park. This would expand Main Street U.S.A. and add some live entertainment that has been missing from the park surrounding Cinderella’s Castle. Maybe there’s a better reason to cancel the project or even postpone it. As many attractions are still being shuffled at Walt Disney Imagineering, we can expect more changes coming to the parks.

Better Cancel It When There’s No Commitment To Theming

Even though the theatre could be great to bring new life to Main Street U.S.A., many people were worried at how generic it looked. If you see the concept art, it just looks like a big building. Not only that, but the theatre would have been added to a completely new street, with its own challenges to theme it just as charming as Main Street U.S.A. is. Even though the backstage areas that would house the theater have been used as a way to handle crowds during peak season, it is nowhere near themed to any area of the actual Main Street U.S.A.

Maybe Disney figured out that in order to make the project valuable they had to commit fully to theme a whole new street. That could be a challenge in itself. Depending on how many showings they could get of a live show, the commitment could be worth it.

A Tomorrowland Expansion Could Be Closer Than Ever

Many insiders noticed how much space the theater needed from Tomorrowland in order to be accommodated in the already odd location. With the neglect of Tomorrowland, they might be reconsidering that decision.

There are many attractions on the table. Some suggest that the Tron coaster could dictate the redesign of most of Tomorrowland’s exterior, updating it to a similar look introduced to the Magic Kingdom in 1971. As Stitch’s Great Escape draws to its extinction, a future attraction should be in the works. Here comes the long-rumored Wreck-It Ralph attraction, themed to a racing simulation within the work of Vanellope and friends. As the sequel to this character relates to the internet, it isn’t far-fetched to see this intellectual property in Tomorrowland.

Another rumor relates to an updated Carrousel Of Progress, with a whole new final act. This may require new animatronics, which Disney seems to be less interested in. To complete the rumor circuit, it is now been said that the Tomorrowland Speedway could get a Tron facelift as it could blend well with the coaster.

Fantasyland Refurbishments?

During the 60th anniversary of Disneyland, some Fantasyland attractions got newly updated special effects and scenes. With the ongoing popularity of many rides in Walt Disney World, the focus on updates could be a reason to get rid of the Main Street Theatre for a while.

Peter Pan’s Flight could be the easiest to update, as they already did in California, but there could be also some focus on It’s A Small World or even Pooh. Both of these rides deserve some updates. It’s A Small World could include new Disney characters within the different themed scenes and Pooh can get Audio-Animatronics or even projected effects (or just tearing it up because we all want the Tokyo Disneyland version).

It’s Too Early To Speculate

Even if the Main Street Theater cancellation becomes true, it is way too far from the 50th anniversary of the park to be speculating. What probably is more concrete of a project is the Tomorrowland redesign, as a facelift to this area could go a long way for the upcoming years. With the Tron coaster coming to the land, its architecture could dictate where the aesthetics go.

Even though live entertainment is still needed in the park, maybe its better, for now, to focus on a newer attraction or just updating. Then, eventually, the Main Street Theatre could come over to bring new life to Main Street. Unless Disney forgets it altogether and moves on to the future projects of Epcot and Disney’s Cinemagine Park (let’s get used to it).

After much speculation with the release date of ‘Solo’ on the horizon, an impressive teaser trailer has been released along with a Super Bowl TV Spot. We still have to see a full trailer, as Lucasfilm clearly labels it a teaser trailer, but we can see where Star Wars is heading.

Let’s remember that, after all, Star Wars has been mainly a sci fi soap opera. Without the special effects, the Skywalker family could easily fit within the soap operas on TV. With the sequel trilogy of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, we still see this recurring theme of relations within the characters. Everything changed with Rogue One, adding much more military flare to the galaxy we all love.

And with Solo, it is time that Star Wars gets some spaghetti western in the mix.

Think about it. One frame of the teaser trailer clearly states this comparison. But in the end, this is a western. Han and Chewie, partners from the old West. Lando, your usual gambler with the best horses (or spaceships) in the stable. All of them moving from town to town, searching for loots to survive.

There has been negativity surrounding this film, mainly because of the directorial shake up and the fact that The Last Jedi left many fans wondering if they’ll even like Star Wars anymore. Solo can pick up those pieces and launch us into a different adventure, just like Rogue One did in 2016.

Few people remember that Star Wars fans also had mixed hopes for Rogue One, which ended up becoming a solid movie detailing one of the most compelling missions in the saga.

Maybe Alden Ehrenreich does not even sound like Harrison Ford, but he has the cadence in his voice and the physical movement to deliver a convincing Han Solo. Donald Glover fits perfectly with Lando Calrissian, with his charm and presence. Let these guys take you into the western genre and see how Star Wars can make it great.

In 1977, George Lucas taught us that soap operas in the galaxy could be compelling. In 2016, Rogue One taught us that warfare could be the main focus in a Star Wars film.

Solo might actually teach us how Han is the wildest cowboy in the whole galaxy.